So my daughter and I convinced hubby to let us get a few pygmy goats. I'm going to be honest and say I know nothing about them. We are going to build a secure pen before we get them home. I want to add a shelter that we can close them inside at night to keep them safe. But I have so many questions! Are females better than males?? Certain breeds better than others, feeding and basic care ? I want them to be cuddly and friendly lol! My kids want to play with them. Can they tolerate cold without a heat lamp ? Summers without fans ? I've been scouring the internet for info but it's not really answering my concerns .. I want to be fully prepared before we jump in! Any advice or info from experienced goat folks will be greatly appreciated.  

Goats are very hardy, I have Boer goats I use to breed them but not any more, I sold my buck and just letting my girls live the rest of their lives out here, I dont have the heart to sell them.. Get Does {female} if you get any male goats get withers {male goats thats been castrated} they make good pets, if you buy Boer goats at a really young age like as soon as weaned they make a sweet friendy pet, some of my babys that I sold went to familys that wanted pet goats. Never had heat lamps, like a horse they will grow a thicker coat for winter.. You put them on a deworming program and trim hoofs when needed. Since you feed Bluebonnet feeds they have good feeds for goats just talk to your feed store people about it. Fencing, get the small square wire where they cant get their heads threw, if to big they will get heads threw and get hung up if they have horns and thats a pain in the a$$ when they do that.. Just make sure dogs cant get in the pens with them, dogs can be a goats worst ememy, I have had my share of stray dogs killing some of my goats and its horrible.. Theres just something about a goat that dogs love to kill when giving a chance, coyotes can be a problem too if you have babys but the stray dogs were the worst.. 

I'll add to the dog/goat thing...

Goats can also been hard on your dogs. Our one horned Boer got her horn into our Weimaraner's stomach, and it ruined her intestines. Her stomach healed wrong and is full of scar tissue, so she has to be on a wet food diet only for the rest of her life. She's only 4 and might live many more years, or she might only make it another few months.

Obviously pygmies are a lot smaller than Boers, but just be aware that those horns can do some damage!

I definitely agree with what Roxie said- goats are very hardy. Unfortunately though, they don't show symptoms of being sick until it's usually too late. I tied goats in high school and college (and continue to give lessons now), so at our peak my parents had roughly 40 goats (we raised our own mixed breeds). I would highly recommend NOT having a billy goat, but either does or wethers would be just fine for pets. We never needed a heat lamp or fans for ours, but we would bring them into our stalls during the winter when it was absolutely freezing or when they were due to kid. Make sure you have a mineral block for them, they can become nutrient deficient very easily- or if you're feeding a complete feed, you should be fine. We gave them a grass alfalfa mix with free choice minerals and they did just fine. Goats are ruminants, like cows, so they are prone to bloat, and it's better for them if you don't let them get extremely obese (harder on their little joints and bodies), and depending on the breed, some just continue to grow. For example, boers just get taller and bigger- some friends of ours have an 8yo Boer wether that weighs about 300lbs. Pygmys usually top out at a smaller height, but can get very rotund very easily. Milk breed goats tend to get taller and will usually always have that same look as holsteins (bred for milk production, not meat). The younger you can get them, the better- obviously the more socialized they will become, I've even seen a couple that were housebroken. Goats are a blast, and absolutely hilarious to be around! They are very friendly, and have the best personalities (definintely more sociable than sheep). Goats do like to climb, so either put something in their pen for them to climb on, or be wary if they get out that they will be climbing on anything they can.

Good luck!! You will love them!

Ditto to everything Roxie said.

My sister has raised pygmy goats for many many years, and they are really easy to take care of. Like mentioned, they need a very secure fence that they can't stick their heads through. They don't need any special kind of shelter, just something to get out of the wind and rain, and for shade in the summer. They don't HAVE to have heaters or fans unless you just really want to. When it gets really cold, she puts out extra hay for bedding, but that's it.

For their diet, your best bet is to get a goat feed because it's specially formulated for them. Don't use a sheep feed because sheep are sensitive to copper, so their feed doesn't have enough copper in it for goats. Go easy on the grain though, they can get VERY fat if they are over fed. My sister has some wethers that are bullies at the feed trough so get more than their fair share and legit look pregnant because their bellies are so big. They do fine with lots of hay and maybe a cup of grain a day. You don't have to get special expensive hay, goats will eat just about anything. I mean anything. Don't leave tarps, plasic, feed sacks, etc within their reach or they'll eat it.

They really love jumping up on stuff so if you can put some tree stumps or steps or something like that in their pen, they'll use it as a playground.

Unless you plan on breeding them, don't get a buck. They are very stinky because they pee on themselves and they like to headbutt your fences.Maybe not as bad as rams, but they don't make as good of pets as females and wethers.

Oh and I'll agree with the others, goats and dogs do not mix. Unless the goats are raised with dogs and see them as friends, they'll attack them. They're not as aggressive towards dogs as donkeys are, but they definitely do not like them, female goats especially.

I have a nigerian dwarf named Bruce and he is the best!   He is 100% just a pet around our house. The people we bought him from had castrated and de-horned him, which I would absolutely recommend.  Our previous goats had horns and even though they were friendly as can be, their horns would snag on our pants/shorts, etc. and it could get a little bit painful.  Bruce has a love/hate relationship with our horses and our dogs.  I'd say they all tolerate each other. Ü   He has his own pen with a mini stall that my husband welded together for him.  We fill it with straw in the winter and it keeps him plenty warm in our Utah winters.  His pen has giant construction tubing that he can play in and on and we also put some varying sizes of tires in his pen that he loves to jump on.  We also socialized him quite a bit when he was little.  He is the best little buddy when I'm doing yard work.  He loves to be by me, so I typically just let him wander when I'm outside and he is really good to stay right with me.  You are going to love having a goat! Good luck with this new fun adventure!

I'll just add to things the "things to be aware of".

I LOVED our pigmy goats. They were friendly and didn't bother the horses or chickens. They played with the dogs and would snuggle with the cats. 

BUT when they were on the loose, they also loved to jump on the hood of the cars I'd be willing to bet you could break them of it, but we knew a lady who bred them and she just took ours and added them to her herd. We got them to eat weeds and they spent much more time playing on the stacks of alfalfa than eating the weeds anyways lol 

Thank you! I'm not planning on letting the dogs around the goats but we get our fair share of neighbors or stray dogs showing up, I always keep an eye out because we have free range chickens so if I hear my dogs barking I head outside to see what's up. My dogs have their own fenced in pen in our backyard so they dont get out unless I let them. So females are the way to go, definitely not planning on breeding I just want 2 babies. What's the average cost for baby pygmies anyway? Nothing fancy just plain Jane pets . . So they can eat coastal hay? Yes I plan on putting stuff in their pen for them to climb up on. Right now I'm trying to scout out where I want to put their pen. My horses will probably be scared to death of them at first so I'm planning on putting the pen up closer to my house. 

We had a boer goat for a year or so. Got him from our neighbors, and since our pasture fence was not really up to goats we ended up putting him in with our chickens. (They had a 50'x60' pen at the time) At first things where fine. And he was very friendly to us. But when he got bigger he started headbutting our chickens and actually killed one of them.... So it was time for him to go.... ended up gifting him to a farmer that lost his entire herd in a flood not long before that.

That's adorable!!! Love the name too 

kmfunk22,Madredepeanut and Gunner11, brought up more really good points...

Bucks are not fun to have around, they can get mean while in rut, they smell really bad while in rut, I think Gunner is the one that mention it, the bucks pee on themselves to keep that musky odor that you cant get off if you get it on yourself, just nasty.. And you can smell them 2 blocks away, lol..

The pygmy goats are so freaking cute I had a few that were giving to me that were pets but the people would get tired of them after awhile, I guess the newness and cutness wore off so didnt want them anymore. But their horns can really be wicked so yes dogs better beware of them, one of my dogs got hooked by one of my pygmys that was giving to me, the pygmys can get really mean when dogs come around if they dont know the dog, they protect themselves very well with their horns and have too being so small, I always said they have that little man syndrome always got a chip on their shoulder when grown, lol.. There is nothing cuter then a kid goat of any breed..The Boer's horns grow thick and wrap back over their heads so their horns wont cause any harm to human or animals, the pygmys grow thinner more up right horns and can cause alot of damage if they use them. 

I have a big pen in the back for my goats that are all does {girls}, lol..I let them out during the day to run around {well really all they do now adays is walk} and graze, but have to keep an eye on them because they want to eat my trees and pretty plants in my yard, they have 80 acres to roam on BUTTTT NOOOO they want to come up to my house and eat all my pretty plants.. 

Sometimes I'm tempted to get another buck because I really miss all the cute babys. But the work that gos along with having babys, my Boers would have multiple births and I would have to pull babys on certain does because one would be too big for the does to have on her own are I would have to bottle feed babys because the does could not keep up with feeding them or the smallest baby would get pushed away and not get to eat.. BUTTTT they sure are cute, I have about 12 does still.. 

Goats are expensive these days! Especially when they're registered and/or come from high end breeders. Depending on where you live, they could be anywhere from $60-$250 (or more, but generally on middle to higher end of that scale). They've definitely become the new "it" pet, now with the whole goat yoga thing- everyone wants a cute little goat for a pet and people know it, so they charge accordingly. I would ask around, see if anyone near you has any kids for sale. Some breeders charge less for pets versus show quality kids. I would watch the local classifieds as well, since they're becoming more of a mainstream pet than livestock in some places.

Oh, and definitely get two- one alone will bleat, but they will both probably bleat everytime someone comes outside or goes by the pen, so make sure they're not *too* close to your house, as they can get loud!

Speaking of pulling kids, the clinic my husband and I used to work at had a horse being treated onsite, and it had a companion goat. The owners knew she was bred, but didn't know when she was due. One morning we came in and she was in labor- my husband ended up pulling kid after kid, she had four kids total!! It was almost never ending I have raised twins and triplets before, but never FOUR! The kids had to be bottle fed, as momma didn't make enough milk to sustain all four of them, but they were all happy and healthy little things! And they were Nubians, so all legs too!

This was my buck that I raised, he was the sweetest buck I ever had, and I was taking a picture of my grandbaby and he snucked into the picture, lol..

Oh my gosh, that was alot of work pulling all those kids, I have so many storys about that I could write a book some were happy stories and some not so happy.. But wont go into that..

I do have a Nubian doe now, I think she came from up the road but somehow she made her way into my goat area and its a ways from the road, but she moved in,, and yet really outa place with my short legged goats with her really long legs.. Never asked the neighbor if she belonged to them because she was so freaking skinny and I think shes the one I almost hit on the road one night a few days befor she showed up, so didnt want him claiming her so she thinks shes a boer now. Lol.. And we have a closed gate so I dont know how she got in, but she did.. 

She must have known your place was the best place for her! That's fantastic you took her in and are keeping her happy and safe As for stories, the same goes here- good and bad, we pretty much saw it all. I will say the good times outweighed the bad, but it sure is hard when these animals become part of the family!

Agree that depending on your area, pygmy goats will run around $50-150. Pygmy goats are shorter and stockier, Nigerian dwarfs are a little leaner looking. Like beef cattle vs dairy cattle. I also agree with getting two vs just one.

Yes, coastal hay is just fine :)

After some late night, not being able to sleep, researching the internet I think I'm now leaning towards a few "wethered" males  from all I've read it's way less drama, kinda like geldings. Plus the difference in price is astounding. Looking up the females in my area are $200-400 a goat! The wethered males are $75 and I read they make much better pets. Now my kids are racking their brains for boy goat names lol! 

I found our new babies! They will be ready to come home April 20th. I'm so excited! I met a very nice lady who raises pygmy goats. I'm going with 2 wethered males. She said her goats are extremely friendly and cuddly, my 2 will be penned together so they can bond before we get them. We named them already too lol! Otis & Oscar

  Congrats!! They are adorable!